Security agencies, including Police, the Department of State Services and the Army, have restructured the security plan in the presidential convoy to forestall further attacks on President Goodluck Jonathan’s entourage in his ongoing presidential campaigns.
On Saturday, policemen and soldiers prevented a huge crowd from coming close to the president.
The few people that came close to the president were diligently frisked.
SUNDAY PUNCH gathered on Friday that among other measures, the agencies had decided to flood the Peoples Democratic Party presidential campaigns with plain-clothes policemen.
It was learnt that the plain-clothes policemen at campaign grounds would be supported by DSS officials.
Investigations showed that the Presidential Guard is saddled with the responsibility of providing security for the President in the Federal Capital Territory; but when the President visits other parts of the country, the army commander in the area or the General Officer Commanding works with other security agencies to protect the President.
It was also gathered that soldiers might be deployed in routes that would be taken by the presidential convoy wherever Jonathan is campaigning.
The measures that had been mapped out, it was learnt would be implemented in the PDP presidential campaign in the North-East and the North-Central this week.
As part of his campaigns, Jonathan will be in Jos, Plateau State and Ilorin, Kwara State on Monday. On Tuesday, his campaign train will move to Lafia, Nasarawa State and the Federal Capital Territory.
On Wednesday, the President will campaign in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State; Yola, Adamawa State on Thursday and Calabar, Cross River State as well as Uyo, Akwa Ibom State on Friday. He will campaign in Kaduna on Saturday.
It was learnt that this week, the agencies would give Jos and Yola special considerations because of the situations there.
Adamawa State is under an emergency rule because of the incessant attacks by the Boko Haram sect from May 14, 2013 to November 13, 2014. Until recently, there have been bomb attacks in Jos.
On Tuesday and Thursday, thugs attacked the President’s convoy in Katsina and Bauchi. The presidential convoy was stoned on Tuesday when Jonathan was going to Yar’Adua Quarters to visit the mother of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.
On Thursday in Bauchi, youths blocked the convoy on Nasarawa Street as it made its way to the palace of Emir of Bauchi, where the President was going to pay homage.
At Babangida Square, the venue of the presidential campaign, water sachets were thrown at the FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed while on the podium.
A security operative in the Presidency told one of our correspondents that the security system around Jonathan had been adjusted on account of the two attacks on the presidential convoy.
The security official said more personnel had been deployed around the President, noting that henceforth, more policemen and other security operatives would be on ground wherever Jonathan would campaign.
“Based on the two attacks on the Presidential convoy in Katsina and Bauchi, the security system around the President has been adjusted to respond to the threats from hired hoodlums and APC thugs. Though we always exercise restraints during such attacks, by using only tear gas to disperse such criminal mobs, but we won’t hesitate to use live bullets if our principal (the President) comes under serious threats,” the official stated.
When contacted, the Force Public Relations Officer, Emmanuel Ojukwu, said the incidents in Katsina and Bauchi were being investigated.
Asked if the police had strengthened the security around the President, the police spokesman said it was Jonathan’s security guards that could give information on that.
He said, “I can’t speak on the President’s security issue, it is the President’s security detail that can give such information. Though his (Jonathan) security is our concern too, but it is the President’s security men that would determine if they need to increase the personnel around him.”
The DSS could not be reached for comment as its spokesperson, Marilyn Ogar, did not respond to calls and the text message sent to her did not elicit a response.
The Director, Defence Information, Brig. Gen Olajide Laleye, said that he would not comment on such as issue.
He said, ‘no comment,’ when our correspondent called to get his reaction on the issue.
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